Grand Central Market Room

The rural commercial hub of Toowoomba, Queensland, is home to an increasingly sophisticated population who want access to the best bits of city life while retaining their town’s distinct rural character. 

The Grand Central Market Room offers them this on a plate. It celebrates the abundant local produce alongside global street food in a setting that’s a modern take on the classic market town. It’s a theatrical mix of food offerings, together with a layering of design elements and materials that come together to provide a unique rural experience.

The Market Room was part of an extension to Grand Central shopping centre aiming to capture the distinctive local community spirit. We divided the space into three distinct zones – High Street containing stalls and fixed shop fronts, Market Square featuring the ​‘open air’ greengrocer and a laneway housing street-food style vendors.

We took styling cues from Toowoomba’s art-deco history, visible in the steel ceiling and portal patterning, to consolidate the brand’s identity. The space features bronzed steelwork, natural solid timbers, bespoke timber furniture, stylised patterns and extensive greenery to distinguish the specialised vendors. 

We designed a tenancy guide, with a kit of parts, to help vendors manage their displays, storage and transactional needs within a standard tenancy shell.